London-based South African artist Nakhane agreed to meet with me virtually to discuss their latest album Bastard Jargon. Being on the free Zoom platform, I didn’t expect the meeting to last any longer than the allotted 40 minutes. So fruitful was the kindred connection that we ended up hacking the system by simply starting our…
On the heels of Tsotsi’s Oscar win for Best International Feature Film in 2006, came another crime film from South Africa. Jerusalema: Gangster’s Paradise (2008), directed by Ralph Ziman was supposed to live up to the critical acclaim that Tsotsi did. However, where Tsotsi is about redemption and the breakaway from criminality in pursuit of…
Certain albums change our lives. It can be the experience of that first note and the resulting rise of goosebumps along your arms, or simply that one was surrounded by loved ones, making the best kinds of lasting memories. Music can be a timestamp of life’s precious moments or the most devastating kind. However you…
Throughout the latter half of the 20th century, many artists, academics and activists explored expressions of race and identity in reaction and response to the colonial liberation movements that proliferated across countries in the Global South. Specifically within the African diaspora, concepts of race were, and continue to be, a topic of concern. Artists, Hank Willis…
In the North, September is a huge moment in the fashion calendar. It acts as a kind of fashion new year, with all brands releasing their Spring/Summer lines in advance for the year to come. For our local calendar, the Spring/Summer collections are released in April. For South Africa, a country which takes the full…
Given its centrality in South African culture, it’s no surprise that the sun has served as inspiration for local and international businesses and brands looking to maintain and attract customers. The Mexican brand Sol Beer, for example, has long been associated with the sun and its positive energy, making it perfectly suited for the sun-and-beer-loving…
On March 21 2023, Uganda passed a bill that targeted the rights of LGBTQIA+ Ugandans. The anti-gay bill, which would further criminalise same-sex relationships and sex work was proposed in May 2021 by the Ugandan parliament. Ugandan lawmakers wanted to impose the death penalty for so-called “aggravated homosexuality.” I had a virtual conversation with social…
Reid starts by asking me – who is here to have a conversational interview with her – about myself. She asks about what I do, whether I enjoy it and how I came to do what I do. We laugh, observing the flipped dynamic of interviewer and interviewee. “I like to know who I’m talking…
Big tech’s impact on society is more pronounced than ever and it is said to be successful because it works. Whether it solves industrial, logistical, or biomedical problems, on the surface digital technology is sold as generally good for the future of humanity. To some extent, it is even linked to freedom and prosperity, but…
There is nothing that captures fashion as well as a film. Films like The Devil Wears Prada, Cruella, and Phantom Thread, are all examples of when fashion becomes a character within a film. To see a garment come alive under the perfect lighting, worn by a picturesque model with the right music playing in the…
It is not a requirement of artistry for the artist to bring themselves and their life experiences into their work. To believe so would be to discredit the many talented artists who act more so as documentarians, holding up a mirror to their consumers, rather than presenting a self-portrait. This is especially true in the case…
I sat down with Jill Richards in Melville amidst the sounds of a Thursday morning in a coffee shop courtyard. The gentle whir of a generator, the hiss of a steam wand, footsteps on the pebbled ground and quiet chatter between friends were the ambient noises behind our conversation; sounds I noticed only after they…
